It’s good thing that UNWTO has recognised inclusiveness as the theme. For a country like India, we are looking at tourism and hospitality providing a huge amount of employment opportunities across the socio-economic spectrum. It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to work with a strategic focus on creating inclusiveness in our sector because in India the experiential possibilities, in terms of magnitude and offerings, are immense. This provide us an amazing opportunity to work at the grassroot level to ensure community involvement and to make sure that there are many benefits that can flow back to society, at large through inclusive tourism.

One must consider local needs when it comes to tourism. In responsible or inclusive tourism, local people try to come out and enhance their skills to suit the needs of 5-star properties in the area. In Kumarakom, Kerala for example, local self-help groups by ladies prepare fish and supply vegetables, linen, drinking water and coconut water to 5-star hotels. There are around seven 5-star hotels and over 200 hotels in Kumarakom and the supply chain management has been taken over by the local population. Local institutions and state governments have given this training to them. Hence, I insist that state governments should actively get involved into developing responsible tourism. Need-based tourism and skill development is essential.

I am proud that our state has taken the lead in agri-tourism. The concept of 30% Krishi Yojana proposed by the Agriculture Minister Dadasaheb Bhuse for women farmers is highly commendable. More than 60% of the country’s population engages in agriculture and it is crucial to link agriculture to tourism. Agri-tourism is instrumental for employment generation and economic improvement especially in these pandemic times when people have lost jobs. Agri-tourism has given us the opportunity to bring together the two major sectors: tourism and agriculture. The current pandemic offers an opportunity to grow agri-tourism in India. One of the safest ways to enjoy travel right now is to visit rural areas, experience rural life and enjoy clean environment.

Community partnership is very important to develop responsible and inclusive tourism in places like Ladakh. There is an immense need to develop overall tourism along with focussing on creating a professional skilled workforce. Tourism can be a game changer that can bring socio-economic change in the nation especially in NE region.

Edesia, the global cuisine restaurant at Crowne Plaza New Delhi is hosting a one of its kind food fest ‘The Culinary Renaissance’ to celebrate the occasion of ‘World Tourism Day’. This week-long festival attempts to celebrate tourism’s ability to drive inclusive development and the role it plays in promoting respect while generating opportunities for many millions across the globe via thematic culinary nights.There will be regional cuisine based Theme Nights, different cuisine every day with special offers for the Hospitality, Travel & Tourism fraternity professionals, The festival would be celebrated from 24th September to 30th September, 2021

Switzerland Tourism will conduct a webinar on Friday, 24th September 2021, focusing on Jungfrau Railways. Jungfrau Railways provides travellers with access to popular excursions such as Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe, Grindelwald-First – Top of Adventure, Harder Kulm – Top of Interlaken and Schynige Platte – Top of Swiss Tradition. The brand new Eiger Express tricable gondola further enhances the travel experience and enables visitors to ascend up to Jungfraujoch, 47 minutes faster! The webinar provides the latest information, news and updates from Jungfrau Railways. To register, contact jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532.

UK and USA have given a nod for Covishield to be accepted as approved vaccine for inbound travellers. Under new guidelines, UK Govt has accepted a full course of the Oxford/AstraZeneca (all formulations including AstraZeneca Covishield, AstraZeneca Vaxzevria) , Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna (including Moderna Takeda) or Janssen vaccines from a relevant public health body in some countries. USA too will reopen in November to fully vaccinated air passengers (including Indians) who are fully vaccinated against coronavirus. Covishield is the only India-made vaccine that is in the list of approved vaccines, as of now.

The wait is finally over. South African Airways (SAA) is set to return to the skies on September 23. The South African national carrier will resume flights after 16 months of being grounded due to viability challenges, in spite of repeated government bailouts and implementation of business rescue plan. Resumption of flights comes three months after the government conceded part of its airline stake to Takatso Consortium, who are now the majority shareholders with a 51 percent stake.

Air India Chairman Rajiv Bansal named as the new aviation secretary. Bansal, a 1988 batch lAS officer of Nagaland cadre, will replace Pradeep Singh Kharola, upon his retirement this month-end. As per Personnel Ministry order: Rajaraman will take over the charge from Anshu Prakash who will retire on September 30. Steel Secretary Pradip Kumar Tripathi will be the Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Govind Mohan, Additional Secretary in the Department of Home, will be Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Anurag Jain, Vice Chairman of the Delhi Development Authority, will become the Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry; K Sanjay Murthy, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Limited, will be Secretary, Department of Higher Education.

As per a recent survey conducted by MakeMyTrip, more than 85% of Indian travellers are keen on flying to international leisure destinations. More than 65% of them are actively searching for flights and hotels in some of the most preferred international leisure destinations like Dubai (36%), Maldives (33%) and Switzerland (22%), that are high on the consideration list. Overall, amongst the surveyed, 43% travelers are keen on unwinding in the idyllic beaches of Thailand and Bali; 39% wish to go island hopping in Maldives and Mauritius; 37% hope to indulge in soul-satisfying Mediterranean experiences in Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Egypt; 33% are eager to explore the contemporary and architectural marvels in Paris and London, and 25% are dreaming of scintillating Switzerland.